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[JimH]

This is a day we've been looking forward to.  We can now tell you more about a major project we've been working on these last couple of months.

TiVo has just released a new option for Series 2 machines.  It lets you use your TiVo to play a library of MP3 and JPG files that are on your PC.

We've built on that capability by adding the server side functionality to Media Center's Media Server component.  Build 9.0.143 or higher is required.

So if you organize your MP3's and JPG files in Media Center, you can now use your TiVo Series 2 machine to play the files, just as you've organized them.

The TiVo now also has network capabilities, so it can be added to a home network and update itself via Internet.

Our official announcement is here:
http://www.musicex.com/press/press47.html

Thanks to John Gateley, who carried the load on making the changes necessary to Media Server, and thanks also to the rest of the team who contributed.  We had good cooperation from the folks at TiVo, but much of what we did had to be painfully worked out by using a network sniffer.  It is a significant accomplishment.

[511PF]

This is great news!  How does this change the HMO interface?  You mentioned that:

"So if you organize your MP3's and JPG files in Media Center, you can now use your TiVo Series 2 machine to play the files, just as you've organized them. "

Does this mean that TiVo simply plays from the 'Playing Now' list in MC?  Can I manage the 'Playing Now' list directly from TiVo?  Can I drill down Artist/Album or Genre/Artist, etc. and add to Playing Now from the TiVo interface?

This may improve the base functionality of TiVo HMO enough to make it a worthwhile purchase.  More details please!

[John Gateley]

Hi 511PF,

The TiVo doesn't use MC's Playing Now, but it does give full access to your library including playlists and smartlists, so you can create a playlist or smartlist with what you want to listen to and use that.

j

[JimH]

It's hard to explain.  Here are some pictures to start with:

http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/2003/TiVo

It's independent of what you're playing on your PC.  The TiVo will be able to see the "tree" in MC.  Whatever views you have under Music and Images will show up on the TiVo.

[511PF]

JimH - that's great.  The screenshots tell me most of what I need to know.  Being able to browse the MC Smartlists as playlists on TiVo is a HUGE improvement over the base functionality.  I wasn't planning to upgrade to a Series2 w/HMO based on the default features.  I don't like using regular playlists, and using folders for playback doesn't work for me.  I actually asked for the MC/TiVo  integration under a different user name on the TiVo board.  I'm glad you guys were ahead of me.  This makes MC an even better product.  I'll start saving my pennies for a Series2.  Thanks!

[xen-uno]

All I can say is....Wow!

edit: Guess I'll have to dump my DishPlayer and pick up a Tivo.

[jimpmc]

In other words, it let you look at your library much more intuitively than physical file structure.  You can look at your library by different tag structures...by artist, by album, by genre, etc. (there are lots of possibilities).  In other words, it's does what you wanted HMO to do if you really had a large media library.

I did notice some quirks, though which can hopefully be addressed quickly:

- When starting the Media Server on port 8080, I get a dialog box saying "Failing to bind.  The port is not available."  I don't know what problems this is causing as it appears to work from there on.  Looking at the log, I see an error relating to the TiVo Beacon listener failed, as follows:

04/07/03 16:38:28 - sharer starting
04/07/03 16:38:28 - Initializing server.
04/07/03 16:38:28 - Server initialized
04/07/03 16:38:28 - sharer ready to accept connections
04/07/03 16:38:28 - Started auto response thread on port 5556.
04/07/03 16:38:28 - TiVo HTTP ready for connections
04/07/03 16:39:15 - TiVo Beacon listener failed
04/07/03 16:39:15 - TiVo Beacon ready for connections


- When I select into my library, there seems to be a problem when I scroll up through a list (after having scrolled down).  The items appear blank and the bottom part of the item list is cut off.  This does not happen with long lists with TiVo Publisher, so I'm not sure where the problem lies.  

- When I stop/start the server I often cannot see the library back on the TiVo without first starting and stopping the 'official' TiVo publisher.  Is that supposed to be running (and/or installed) with Media Server?


The second item is the biggest showstopper at this point.  Anyone experience the same behavior?

[John Gateley]

Hi jimpmc,

You must disable the TiVo Beacon running with the TiVo supplied server. This runs on port 2190 and cannot be changed. Shutting down the TiVo server does not shut down the beacon.  You can kill the beacon process, or in Control Panel / Administrative Tools you'll find component services, and it can be disabled there.

Strangely enough, it probably does work fine using the TiVo beacon and our server, the beacon protocol doesn't send much info (and right now we don't change the defaults). This won't work in the future though.

I am fixing the scroll-up bug as we speak. I don't know if it will be out tonight or not [edit -- look for this tomorrow]. I noticed I had to scroll down to get the TiVo to begin responding again.

I don't recommend  running the TiVo Publisher on the same machine. This will lead to conflicts.

Note that using port 80 instead of 8080 means that the TiVo doesn't recognized the server for several seconds (and you must enter the IP by hand).

j

[MighTiVo]

I had a bit of trouble getting the Media Center TiVo server started.
In case someone else has a question, I uninstalled the TiVo Publisher and then started the Media Center Server
You can find it here:
Start/JRiver Media Center/Media Server
Then set it up here:
Settings-Options-TiVo